I've just been for a quick rummage and turned up a few old gems. I hope it's ok to post them here. My old friend the P2 300 SL2W8: Hardware T&L!! The 32MB Geforce 256 DDR, effectively the "Geforce 1" (CLAP - Creative Labs Annihilator Pro): Where it all began - my first & the first 3D accelerator, the 3Dfx Voodoo 4MB:
As mentioned in my original post - the first CPU I truly owned myself. I plan to take it out of my first PC, which is still sitting in my room at the folks'. If that's genuinely the first consumer level GPU, I may have to get one!
First dedicated consumer-grade 3D accelerator for IBM compatibles; not the first consumer-level GPU. Many systems had a graphics processor before the 3dFX: IBM itself launched the Color [sic] Graphics Adapter in 1981, which was then picked up and rebuilt by ATi for release in a variety of forms (including a model with built-in 24-pin joystick port.) If you don't need IBM compatibility, the Matrox ALT-256 monochrome graphics board added 256x256 monochrome bitmap capabilities to any Altair (S-100) bus computer in 1978... EDIT: To clarify: the 3dFX Voodoo PCI card's launch in 1996 marked the first time a consumer could buy a dedicated 3D accelerator board for his or her games, but was not the first 3D accelerated graphics card. The 3dFX Voodoo could *only* do 3D; all 2D work was carried out by the system's existing graphics card, which had its VGA output connected to the Voodoo through a short length of cable. For first consumer-grade 2D/3D accelerator, which is more recognisably a 'graphics processing unit' like we know it today, you're probably looking at the S3 ViRGE, which launched a year earlier in 1995 with both 2D and 3D acceleration capabilities - unless anyone knows of an IBM-compatible 2D/3D GPU launch which predates it?
Gareth's right - perhaps I should have said "the first decent 3D accelerator". There were other cards that could do 3D before the Voodoo, but they were absolutely pants - no kidding! Gamers even dubbed the ViRGE "the world's first graphics decelerator". "...3D functionality was both limited and slow. When performing basic 3D-rendering with only texture mapping and no other advanced features, ViRGE's pixel throughput was somewhat faster than the best software-optimized (host-based CPU) 3D-rendering of the era, and with better (16bpp) color fidelity. But when additional rendering operations were added to the polygon load (such as perspective-correction, Z-depth fogging, and bilinear filtering), rendering throughput dropped to the speed of software-base rendering on an entry-level CPU, which was unacceptable to most gamers. Due to this abysmal 3D-rendering performance, the ViRGE earned the dubious distinction of being the world's first "graphics decelerator." " http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_ViRGE Those "advanced features" that slowed the ViRGE to a crawl (bilinear filtering etc) were IMO the holy grail of 3D gaming and made a huge difference to the way games looked. The Voodoo could perform all these tasks without breaking a sweat, and games looked, quite iterally, amazing. The Voodoo blew everyone away when it arrived. I was in college studying computing as a mature student at the time and I can remember everyone was talking about it. It was a very exciting time for gamers.
I went against the grain and went PowerVR for reasons that I can't recall... perhaps just for the sake of going against the grain. So many unplayable games... the native PowerVR games did look fantastic and run very smoothly - minor issue that there were only four or five of them. The Glide API was the bane of my existence until Direct3D got its act together and I upgraded to a Riva128. 3Dfx may not have been the first, but it was certainly the de-facto standard.
I had a 3DFx, a friend had a PowerVR and another one had a Matrox M3D ... that was an interesting time with lots of very new things. Remember the first LAN when one of us got a 3D accelerator. It was 320x200 software versus 800x600 hardware ... so unfair xD.
I have fond memories of my Diamond Edge 3D card (complete with a pair of Saturn controllers) based on the NV1 architecture. I thought it was the absolute dogs' at the time...!
I have fond memories of pretty much every piece of technology from that era - perhaps a little bit of rose tinted glasses, but home computing was way more exciting in the 90's IMO.
I remember buying a Diamond Monster Fusion off a lad in college, can't remember how much though but I was chuffed
PowerVR... Matrix M3D... Diamond Edge 3D... Those names bring back so many memories. Incidentally, my first "mod" was for the Voodoo. I've no idea where I got the idea from (maybe I just thunk it all by myself) but I very crudely cut shallow grooves in a thin strip of aluminium and held it on the Voodoo's main chips with an elastic band. I can't remember the numbers, but it helped with the overclock. (I still have my homemade heatsink. A work of art it certainly isn't!)
Slot 1 Pentium II, Matrox G200 with SDRAM slot for memory expansion (wish we could still expand GPU memory), 2x Voodoo 2 in SLI ... so many fond memories
Fantastic. I upgraded from Voodoo to a Diamond Voodoo 2, which I soon sold when a friend offered to sell me his two Orchid Voodoo 2 cards. Unfortunately I sold those on - I wish I'd kept them. Edit: Guille, is that your hardware, do you still have it?
Nope, not my hardware, sorry. I had the same rig but with an ATI 3D RageII+, but my "father" gave all my hardware to his mistress's son (very long story that I'd prefer to forget) ... including my IBM PS/2 with maxed out memory, tape drive, roland sound card and Model M keyboard. [Dat sound card: Roland LAPC-I ISA] Another great piece of technology: Amiga bridge-boards This a board for the Amiga, sporting a full x86 system. Can't choose beteween Amiga or IBM PC .... then have both inside the same system. And it was overclockable: http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/a2386.html
What a great idea, not sure what I'd have but a speccy 48k rubber keyboard would be one of the things in there, maybe something from the Amiga too perhaps. Old phones would be quite cool for me too.
Two more items today, which given their timing is quite funny (for me, anyway!): Zotac GTX 480: Quite fluffy but an air blast or two sorted it out for the most part. Immaculate condition otherwise. Brings back nostalgia of my first foray into building a gaming supercomputer. Asus 5879 0: Again, immaculate condition excepting severe hair build up - I think the owner may have had a cat or something! I have to say, the cooler on this is very good looking. Both of the above are currently soaking in deionised water just to shift anything left. Well, I'm hopefully going to be the owner of one of these now! I've got my eye on a 3Dfx Voodoo 4MB but it's from the same chap who's supposed to be sending me a Voodoo 2. Why is this a bad thing? The Voodoo 2 is a week late and still hasn't arrived - Royal Mail's fault are far as I'm concerned as the guy seems genuine enough. I think I'm going to say that if he sends me out the Voodoo 4MB free of charge, I'll let it go. I've also ordered original discs of DOS 4.0, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows XP. DOS comes on six 5.25" floppies! A mint condition first generation iPad should hopefully also be arriving next week, along with a Game Boy. The Game Boy reminded me that I still have an original PSP 1000 kicking around in very good condition, so I'll give it a thorough clean before storing it for the display. Oh, and I forgot to add: a Thermalright TRUE All Copper CPU Cooler. I have wanted one of these since I first knew about them about 8-9 years ago.
Correct! I built a dedicated FEA PC for a friend using that card. Very nice - ran exceptionally quiet! Gah! The 5870 was obviously owned by a smoker! Turned the water brown and made my hands stink! Cleaning it properly is definitely going to be a challenge.
